Centerville updates police and records fees; council requires digital copies be billed at actual staff cost

Centerville’s City Council approved an update to police and government-records fees on April 21, adopting Resolution 2026-06 after a public hearing and an amendment to charge digital copies by staff time and actual cost.

Chief Alan Aerson explained the department’s review found inconsistencies and outdated fees across records types. Department staff compared fees with 31 other agencies and aimed to recover reasonable processing costs without profiting. The proposed schedule updated charges for printed accident and police reports and added a digital-copy line.

Council members pressed staff on how digital records would be charged. One council member argued that electronic PDFs impose negligible marginal copying cost and that fees should reflect staff time to compile and redact records rather than a flat per-page digital fee. Records staff confirmed many requests are small and can be provided electronically quickly, while larger requests require more staff time to review and redact.

The council amended the resolution to require digital copies to be assessed at actual cost based on staff time spent (and any direct expenses such as removable media if requested). With that change, council voted unanimously to adopt the updated fee schedule.

Staff said the change standardizes fees across departments, better reflects the cost of processing records requests, and maintains a public-access commitment: routine, short requests continue to be provided at low cost, while large or complex requests will be billed for the staff time required to process them.